It’s no insult to say that Green Lantern was a box office letdown for Warner Bros., so early promises that Green Lantern 2 will be a better film have seemed overly optimistic – even to the biggest fans of the first film.

The common sense notion that a lot of people seem to be dancing around is that this is simply NOT how Hollywood works. Studios pour money into things they know, suspect, or at least gamble will work – they don’t double-down on a franchise that hasn’t shown good returns – typically speaking, that is.

Well, score one for common sense and one less for fan hopes: Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes has slowed the roll on this Green Lantern 2campaign.

“It did not live up to expectations – fell fairly far short of those,” Bewkes said. Still, he didn’t rule out a sequel at this point, saying that he was not in a position to tell at this time if there will be one. “We will be deciding that in due course,” he said. Sources had previously told The Hollywood Reporter that Warner Bros. was not giving up on a sequel.

Bewkes, however, calmed Wall Street concerns about TW’s plans to use superhero films from its DC arm to fill the void that will be left after the final film in the Harry Potter franchise. “I’m not concerned about DC’s strategy,” Bewkes emphasizing, predicting that it will be “a major contributor” of hits and franchises in the future. He pointed to a planned Superman film and next year’s latest Batman release as upcoming projects.

"The one thing a Green Lantern should be able to do is make green."

There are a couple of things that can be extrapolated from those statements:

Green Lantern 2 is an ongoing debate behind the scenes, most likely those in the “We’ve learned from our mistakes,” camp vs. those in the “No more mistakes,” camp.

When the CEO says that a movie isn’t certain, it’s not certain – no matter what any other writers, producers, etc., say.

Whenever you have to start answering questions about strategy concerns, you’re probably a little concerned about strategy.

(And this is totally in my opinion) There is reason to be concerned: if 2012 isn’t a smash year for the superhero films with The Avengers, Dark Knight Rises, and Man of Steel, the comic book movie bubble could burst. The signs of fatigue are already showing.

So there you have it, DC/WB isn’t just jumping into Green Lantern 2 and sense is restored to the universe. I’m actually hoping that this franchise does get another chance to shine (pardon the phrasing): I have love for the character and what the comic has done for him in the last decade – I’m hoping that a sequel will actually meet that standard.

As always, we’ll keep you updated on the status of Green Lantern 2as more news develops.

Comic Book movies are fine. The issue is that they are not thinking out of the box with some of these properties. There are several franchises that would benefit from being treated as TV series on HBO, on going stories as Harry Potter film franchise, or simply written according to the content in the book, rather than the alternate takes these Hollywood writers attempt. A film like Doctor Strange is important to set up as an epic in the vibe of Lord Of The Rings, and lead to something more than just a tale regarding the origin of the hero and his villain. Include other heroes in brief cameos and sequels.

And the biggest issue is that sometimes Hollywood needs to look at building movies around thought and story, rather than the looks, and flashing lights. Ryan Reynolds was completely wrong for Green Lantern, and that turned many off from the jump, only to have a terrible movie confirm their fear. They need to listen to the fans, but first and foremost, listen to the owners and writers of these properties, and see what direction could they use to appeal to the fans and masses

Still going strong? No way. We had four major comic book movies this year. None of them has crossed the 200 million benchmark domestically. Green Lantern totally bombed but even the critically acclaimed X-Men: First Class failed to attract an audience beyond the hardcore fanbase. Its gross is the weakest of all X-Men flicks, despite being way better than the last two installments. And the numbers for Thor and Cap are a lot closer to The Incredible Hulk than to the Iron Man movies.

Well, I guess 2012 will be the end of the comic book movie hype. The Annoying Spider-Boy is going to fail epically and even The Dark Knight Rises will gross a lot less than its predecessor. I’m not even sure there will be a substatial synergy effect for The Avengers. They’d be lucky if people mistake it for Iron Man 3.

@Smike I disagree. Thor has made $180 domestically but over $440 million worldwide. Captain America ALREADY made more than Green Lantern and has barely been out for two weeks. It dominate places such as Mexico and Australia and has yet to come out places such as France and Hong Kong.

X-Men bombed because this is the fifth installment and the franchise never had an epic movie, and as you read above Green Lantern bombed on so many different levels for so many different reasons. I agree on Spiderman bombing but not TDKR and Avengers.

Super hero movies are far from dead, but if they keep churning crap what do you expect? I

I have something to tell you John Doe…If it only makes back its budget it bombed…it is considered a bomb as long as it fails to return atleast double its budget in world wide sales…atleast…and still needs to make a profit domestically…

I really hope they dont make a sequel to this. Green Lantern was and still is one of my fav super heros. This movie really kind of ruined it for me. I am really hopping in the next few years they will reboot this. New cast, new director, new producer, and new writer, and new visual effects company. I dont care what what anybody says, those visual effects were not good. The design was pretty cool but it just looked crappy, when you have a company who cant even make a mask look real, they failed.

And another thing, CEO’s of hollywood are ruining movies. They have this ego of knowing everything about film and not really caring about what the audience says about their films, after all they make most of the money, so why should they care right? It jus ticks me off that CEO’s and dont really let filmmakers make the films that they vision and which limits their craft, but instead they are more worried about how much money they will make. Orginalitly has left hollywood, and it needs to be brought back.

I’m sorry but you simply CAN’T replace Harry Potter by a bunch of DC movies for a multitude of reasons.
First, WB / DC simply are too late. With the X-Men and The Avengers plus several minor Marvel adaptations plus a (superfluous) Spider-Man reboot, thzere won’t be any appetite for even more comic books adaptations left in 3-5 years from now. C’mon! Even comic book spoofs are as good as dead after Kick Ass, Green Hornet, Super etc…
Second, the Harry Potter audience mainly isn’t interested in comic book superheros. But they ARE craving for more decent young adult fantasy adaptations. Yeah, flocks of attempts have failed over the last decade, but mainly because they were BADLY executed. Eragon, Percy Jackson, Golden Compass…none of these had to fail. If handled properly, another Harry Potter franchise might still be upon us.
Third, Harry Potter doesn’t need replacement. There is so much potential for more movies set in the HP universe. The foundation of Hogwarts, Dumbledore’s gritty quest for power in his youth, the rise of Tom Riddle, the first war against Voldemort featuring the original Order of the Phoenix…at least three prequel movies are waiting to be scripted and produced based on information found in the original novels.
Plus there might always be new stories based on the kids…Who knows… Maybe Salazar Slytherin himself is still alive somehow, having created his own thirteen Horcruxes all around the world to be elimiated by Albus Severus, Hugo and the rest of the Next Generation bunch…

WB should abandon the crazy idea of utilizing lame DC movies as a replacement for something that simply cannot be replaced.

First of all I agree with you completely about the many elements of Harry Potter that can be explored, but to say DC film are lame is a bit of a bigoted statement. You sound like a Harry Potter fanboy who refuses to look at the overall picture of this situation. Harry Potter has been done, and there are many DC properties which can be done in multi-picture format just like Harry Potter, and Green Lantern is one of them. The damage done to Green Lantern is b/c DC didnt think of this situation completely, and it made a mistake. DC has tones of characters and stories that could easily replace Harry Potter as its cash cow. Will it be received by the same fans? Probably not. But thats why there are legions of other fans who will pour their money into the comic books series run. Blackest Night, brightest day, kingdom come, etc, these are movies that could easily be made as finales for on going films to finish up with a grand finale

You know, Prophet King, five years ago, I would have perfectly agreed with you. But apart from Nolan’s Batman trilogy (which is not your typical comic book fantasy but a down-to-earth mobster tale), WB has failed to turn the DC mythology into a cinematic franchise. They haven’t just screwed up Green Lantern. And I’m not gonny count in the failed Wonder Woman TV show.
Superman Returns is a far bigger problem. Supes is the key character to the DC universe. Now they are trying to reboot his story with Snyder’s Man of Steel…again. I simply cannot see it. Snyder? He’s great…with alternate approaches. But Supes is a mainstream adventure. They abandoned Singer’s approach and now we’re gonna get the Watchmen approach with Lawrence Fishburn as Perry White? Snyder has lost his mass appeal after 300. His Man of Steel is doomed to fail with the mainstream audience and the core base.

The DC movie franchise is a mess. The Dark Knight may be the greatest comic book movie ever but it also is the weakest link. It worked because it wasn’t your typical superhero flick. But Nolan’s Batman and Green Lantern simply cannot exist in the same continuity without losing its final bit of credibility.

As for me being a Potter fanboy…right on target. But I used to be a DC fanboy as well…

l think Smike over here is absolutely right.
DC/WB are doing this all wrong.
Nolan’s batman’s a briliant but they simply can’t exist in an extended DC universe with Superman and Greenlanter. they’re too realistic. It would have been nice to see a justice league franchise but that can’t happen because they’d have to reboot every single superhero franchise.
Seen a Man of Steal is probably going to be a major flop nobody would even go to see yet another reboot. l guess a green lanter sequel could be put in a DC universe without a reboot but it’d be hard to pull off

I agree though that DC characters have such a complex aura and feel to them that seeing them together in one movie would dilute those factors which make them appealing.

Whereas with Marvel you can take any character from any book and mix them together because they feel like they all exist in the same universe anyway. Trying to envision Superman hanging out in Chris Nolan’s Batcave makes me want to puke and yet I would love to see Spiderman and Wolverine together in a New Avengers movie.

Never. Ever. Ever. Speak of Harry Potter continuing the franchise in movie form. It was a perfect ending to a perfect series. Why would you want to sully it?

And thirteen horcruxes? Gawd, let’s just recycle all the plots she had! I joked about it at first, but i would rather they reboot the Harry Potter franchise on T.V. than see any “continuation”. *finger in throat. barf*

Agreed. At the end of the day numbers are all that matter. It would have to take some miraculous blu-ray/dvd sales to help. And lets not forget the toys that will clog the pegs of Target for months to come.

Warner is just not trying to bury a film that is still out in the theaters but, this movie is going to be a loss for them. The obvious idea that they want to replace Harry Potter and other studios are looking for the next Star Wars, etc., is not lost on comic fans who are starting to see the films for the loosely based cash grabs that they are.

I am not a Potter fan by any stretch and don’t follow the films or books that closely but, one thing I have heard is that overall the tone of the story has matured as fans and characters presumably have and they don’t insult the fans intelligence. To me as someone who read comics in the 80′s and 90′s but kind of fell out of interest I feel at this point that the studios see comics as kiddie fare akin to whatever cartoon adaption they may have seen and any notion of it being nearly serious or dramatic enough to treat just like a story to be is lost on them.

As for the money they spend, I said this in another post and it really applies to allot of these summer movies. What are they spending all this money on ? 150-200 million for allot of the movies that came out this summer, 285 million for all three Lord of the Rings movies combined. I can’t see where even with inflation there is double the quality for double the money.

Ok Robert, you make a good arguement should your math stand up to the truth of the situation…

The budget is indeed claimed at 200 million…
But I think you are a bit of about the promotional costs since I have seen estimates averaging that the total cost with promotion and production is 300 million total.
and green Lantern has brought in to date a total of $154,501,789
That leaves a black mark of $145,498,211 that needs to be made up with DVD sales…which I highly doubt will actually happen

Not much different than what you had but that is about 30 million less they will actually have to make up compared to your estimate..which makes no difference in the end result at all…Green Lantern 2 will not be made in this decade unless DVD sales go through the roof.

The reality is that for this movie to make a profit it would have to do over 400 million dollars, and that’s not figuring for whatever the promotional costs were. They start out at negative 200 million from the gate and have to make that back and then make another 200 million just to have the money they started with.

If they had of just spent 10 million on promotions and made money off of merchandise and never made this movie they would have lost way less money. Somebody at that studio is looking for a new job and I would bet that the Superman movie is going to be under a microscope as far as costs going and looking at the casting they are doing and the fact they are probably going to have to re-do the script (and pay someone else to do it) means that they won’t be pumping in extra money on the back end for effects like they did for GL. And we know Snyder loves him some CG….

@Slayer, I dont really know much about the money side of film making, but if a movie costs $200 million to make, after it makes $200 milllion why would it need to make another $200 million to be at 0? Once you’ve made back the intial investment, the production costs in this case, wouldnt all money after that be considered profit? Ignore marketing just for this hypothetical.

It’s nothing but math really. -200 million plus 200 million on a calculator equals 0. Another 200 million is needed to get back to the initial 200 that they started with in the first place. What is made after the second 200 million starts to become profit, and that is after whatever other money is taken out for various things.

A studio has 200 million, spends 200 million on a movie, now the studio has 0. The movie makes 200 million, the studio has its 200 million back. The studio is essentially at its starting point, isnt it? But now has a movie to show for it. Any money the movie brings in after making its production budget should be considered profit, shouldnt it?

It’s the concept on positive and negative numbers as it applies to money and accounting. The cost of making a product is considered a loss, i.e. negative cash flow. The studio in essence bought a 200 million dollar movie,had they not made the movie at all they would still have the money.

The first 200 million they would have to make would be them just making the 200 million they lost back taking them to a zero starting point. Now if they make another 200 million they have the initial money they started with in the first place. After that it becomes profit.

It is like those annoying math word problems where you have a certain amount it costs to produce something and how many sales would you need to make a profit.

Of course comic-movies are not bringing in the revenue they used to, there is an expiration date on it’s popularity. Studios are now trying to churn out these films like a machine, all the while rolling the dice on how the public will react. This is no different from when the Matrix was released, then suddenly there was an onslaught of imitation Matrix movies for the next decade or so. There was also a time when Armageddon and Weather catastrophe films were the thing. Studios do the same thing over and again. First, a smart producer will stumble across a gem of a movie idea, put his heart and soul into it, and pitch to a studio that is at first unwilling. Once the producer actually makes the film and it turns into a blockbuster, the studio tries to mimic these film genres with watered down versions. This is where we are with comic movies, and especially where we are with GL.

I have to disagree. The reason comic book movies arnt doing as well, in my opinion, is there are a lot more of them out there than there used to be. Big budget CBMs used to be very rare. People are now spoilt for choice and can be picky about which one they go for.

Comic book movies is a genre not a fad. There will always be a need and a want for them. A good alien invasion flick will always draw crouds, but release 4 of them within a few months and of course numbers will be down. Studios need to realise that people are looking for more than just a comic book super hero in a movie, they also want a good story. The increase in CBM’s will force studios to actually put some effort into them, to draw the big crowds.

Take Fantastic Four. I think most people would agree that it wasn’t the best movie based on a comic book, but it made money. If FF was released this year amongst all the other CBMs, do you think it would have done as well? Would Fox have released Rise of the Silver Surfer? Hopefully there will be another Green Lantern, and the studios will realise they do need to put as much thought into it as any other potential block buster. People wont just show up anymore becuase a movie has a super hero in it. They want and deserve more.

here’s a thought…maybe get directors and writers who are actually good at their craft? you can’t tell me the studio read the script for gl and it just blew them away. the people running this whole show have money, yes, but that’s about all they have. it’s obvious hollywood only has a few creative minds these days. all we get now are remakes hoping to appeal to the new generation which we slam 75% of the time. i get a movie may hit or miss sometimes but lately a lot of it is trash. these pinheads in the suits complain about money being lost, but they are the ones who hire people in hopes of making a good movie. iron man was a great movie, but they decided to rush 2 it and it all went to crap. the hulk was crap so they made the incredible hulk, which was good. ed norton wanted to be able to have some imput to make a better movie and they gave him the boot. i mean cmon, he’s a great actor and should’ve had some say since he was the star but no. superman returns was garbage, singer had no idea what he was doing with that and shouldn’t have even been directing that. i mean he blew 10 mil on that return to krypton scene he didn’t even use. raimi’s spiderman was campy and got worse as the series went on, you couldn’t help but laugh at it. then the studio completely ruined the 3rd one by making him use venom which we all know how that went. gl was a total bust and they should have known that going in. i felt bad for reynolds after seeing the film having to put on a smiley face to promote that garbage. credit nolan for actually having a vision and skills to write batman so well. you can’t tell me others can’t follow suit or at least put out something decent that makes money. to mr. time warner, it starts from the top down buddy, take a look in the mirror. that so called “strategy” of putting out half azzzz movies isn’t going to cut it anymore. they will be the death of superhero movies, not us because we aren’t going to pay to sit through hours of crap when we know the quality should be a lot better.

We all know WB is just gonna reboot Harry Potter and make each book into two movies

As for the comic book movie bubble, I think it’s a fair assessment. None of the ones this year have reached blockbuster status and the studios are now on the second tier of characters. Man of Steel may be the last real shot for superhero movies, I hate to say.

Why is there talk of the comicbook movie bubble bursting? Teh western bubble hasnt burst. Nor has the romantic comedy bubble, the slasher bubble, the thriller bubble, theespionage(James Bond) bubble. Comic book movies might slow down, but I dont see the bubble bursting.

Absolutely we need a Green Lantern sequel but with the bumps ironed out (weak script for #1, way too much humor, needless bedroom scene, etc.). There is way too much potential in this franchise to let it wither on the vine when it has only started. A “quit” for DC/Warner now means they may as well go out of business. Even if they fell off the horse with GL, and I don’t think the fall necessarily has to be that far, learn from the mistakes, get back up on the horse, and try again. John McCain, a pretty darned good Senator most of the time, tried for the White House a couple times. He did not do that good the first time, but the second time, he improved. He imploded at the end, sure(mainly due to the stupidity of most bandwagon-chasing unaware Americans who showed their political knowlage shallowness by voting for Obama), but he came closer, and if he were running today, he would be the Republican nominee, and would have a pretty reasonable chance of winning in 2012. It is the same principle: give GL a chance and let him take a second shot at saving the comicbook movie universe. If the comicbook movie universe collapses, it will be as much the fault of all you nay-sayers out there as the movie quality themselves. In the meantime, I will be first to purchase a GL #1 DVD when it comes out, and also plan to get GL#2 & The Flash if those movies are made, and come out on DVD! So there, say “Oops” upside your heads!

Darn was actually thinking the next Green Lantern might be good after reading your previous story but now it looks uncertain. I say if Hollywood banks on a film then it would probably bank on it’s sequel right? I think it should be made!

I think we can all agree that Green Lantern performed far below everyone’s expectations, for both fans and the company alike, but I still think they should go ahead with a sequel, if only so that they can do it better next time. It’s taken DC this long to run with a film that didn’t rely on Batman or Superman, and if they’re gonna compete with Marvel in the film department they can’t give up after one flop.

I’d love to see another Green Lantern film, done completely AWAY from the Earth this time. An honest to god space adventure. We need a better story, more solid characterization, real human drama with only one human involved in it. The great thing about Green Lantern is that it breaks away from many classic superhero conventions. A Green Lantern isn’t a superhero, he’s a space-faring lawman. They’re more like Jedis in this way. The next film should be about the corps.

The comic book bubble will burst, it is absolutely a matter of time, with the exception of The Dark Knight and Iron Man, they have all under performed at the box office, to make them a contuning success CBMs need to break a billion dollars almost every time.
Also, there are so many people out there who simply don’t watch CBMs, most are aimed at children and comic book fans. Some can cross into the mainstream, but most don’t. I have friends who have never seen a CBm at all, never. They don’t interest them. And that is true of a lot of people. Plus they used to be maybe one every 1-2 years. Now we get 3-4 every year. Its over saturating the market and people get sick of them, “oh look its another comic book movie, yawn”

Green Lantern is a massive flop without question. I’m not even sure it has managed to gross $200 million worldwide yet. Superman Returns’ box office performance was heavily criticised (with some justification)but that still outgrossed Batman Begins for a £397 million take – free of 3D receipts as well. That fact alone emphasises the complete failure of Green Lantern.

I don’t think the comic book movie bubble has burst yet. Thor’s $450 million worldwide gross was impressive and no one can doubt that The Avengers and Dark Knight Rises (please change that title!) will be two of the biggest grossing films of the year.

However if you force something down people’s throats long enough they will get sick, and I think 3 high profile releases so close to each other is suffocating audiences and the strain will start to show. It’s happened with other genres – historical epics (Gladiator, Troy, Alexander) alien invasion (Independence Day, War Of The Worlds, Battle LA, Skyline) Natural disasters (Dante’s Peak, Volcano, The Core). People like these event type films, but not when the same old comes out every week. It’s why the Bond franchise has lasted 40 plus years, after one entry take a break and then come back fresh and invigorated.

There also has to be a realisation that not every comic book character is known amongst the masses. Superman, Batman & Spiderman can be rebooted until the end of time, but the likes of Dr Strange, Silver Surfer or Green Arrow will always find it hard to be successful on the big screen.

Finally, The Dark Knight is still not the centre of the comic book movie universe. A stellar fine film, yes, but overlong and a weak third act also. Blade, Superman II, Spiderman 2 and Hulk (yes, the Ang Lee version) are all equally as good in comparison and in some parts actually superior.

I loved the Green Lantern. It was an actual story which alot of the other hero movies lacked to fully give…excluding captain america. what commentary i can provide is that it didn’t do so well because the studios packed them all into each other. Thor started the summer, a two weeks later Xmen came out, then the next green lantern, and finally 2 weeks after that came Capt. America. This overloaded july causing a jarring flow. if they had released one everymonth and not over lapped runs then the public would not have gotten bored with super heros movies so quick.

I saw Green Lantern and it was complete garbage. Some people still stand by it because of all the hype they contributed to (imo) The movie had no soul at all.
Since rebooting has become the latest fad (biggest cop-out)in Hollywood WB should just reboot the movie over and over again, release a new version every year until they get it right, or until they bankrupt the entire company.

Fatigue? Look at what Captain America has done. Cap knocked Harry Potter out in its second week out. If the Green Latern movie had been like what the second one is suppose to be, it would have done well also. Frankly, this has been the best fantasy/sci-fi summer movie season in a loooong time. If you think Batman and the Avengers are going to come up short, you are going to be in for a surprise. Fans can’t wait. And the new Superman pic looks good too. Expect DC and Marvel to do just fine at the mvoies.

I would really like to see a second movie…a reboot would be a terrible idea at this point since it is so early in this franchise. also the GL universe is essential to the Justice League film they want to do, a sequel has to be done to increase the storyline and WILL BE AWESOME if done correctly.
it just needs more of the story focused in space with the Green Lantern Corps as a whole now that Hal’s origin story is out of the way. the main plot should definitely be about Sinestro turning evil and creating the Sinestro Corps, as we need to see more of Mark Strong in action… and an intro to the Book of Oa and John Stewart would be a huge plus in the series, while leading to the Justice League… also i think it would be solid if called “Green Lantern Corps” not just a stupid name like “Green Lantern 2″ or “Green Lantern: SOmething Something” imo.